From Pain to Proclamation!

I don't know where the beginning of March has found you. Are you waiting for something? Do you feel like you are in a holding pattern or living the same routine everyday and it's feeling mundane and boring? Or maybe you are in a trial and the clouds hang low and you are just not sure how to proceed.  Maybe you can see the peaks of the trials that lay ahead for you and you are tempted to turn and run, wishing you could escape your life. I don't know where these first few days of a new month find you...but I know Who holds these days, ordained these days, gives provision and protection for these days, and promises to accomplish His glory and our good even in the midst of pain and tears! Our God is in the Heavens and He does all that He pleases (Psalm 115:3). For those who are in Christ Jesus, we can praise Him and rest in the reality that "all that He pleases" is always good, always perfect, always just, always refining, always loving, and always gracious!

Yet, what are we to do in the midst of the wait, the trials, the pain and the unknown? The book of Acts gives us a window into the apostle Paul's life...and his example is help and hope for our souls.

In Acts 22, Paul was wrongfully imprisoned and held on baseless charges. And, like Joseph in the book of Genesis, though he should have been released quickly, the Lord had other plans. One thing led to another and an appeal to Caesar was invoked. Then Paul waited and waited and waited. Two years later, he was on a ship headed for Rome. It was a journey full of peril, trials and shipwreck. But, they finally made it...and this is where we expect the music to crescendo as Paul stood up amongst the  rulers, gave his defense, is acquitted and then released.

But the book of Acts ends on a far different "note"...and it is hugely helpful in giving us direction:

"Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hinderance."                                                Acts 28:30-31

The wait continued. Although in his own rented house, he was not free to leave and the guard that stayed with him at all times was proof of that. Yet, he did not wallow in self pity. He did not hide in his bedroom. He did not write letters to the editor about all the injustices of the Roman system and blame his life on others. He truly was "steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work" (I Corinthians 15:58). He knew that his labor was not in vain because there was nothing more important than declaring "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (2 Cor. 2:2).

Paul did not waste the wait, he did not waste the trials, and he did not run from pain....he proclaimed Christ. And he was able to do that because of the way he viewed his life:

"I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God's grace."    
Acts 20:24

I don't know your trials or troubles as you stepped into a new month, but I pray we all find comfort and hope through Paul's testimony and life. And may our waiting, our mundane, our trials and our pains give way to praise as we proclaim the gospel of God's grace and the hope of Heaven for, "to live is Christ and to die is gain"!